Ookiku Furikabutte/Big Windup Manga Returns From Hiatus in July

This year's August issue of Kodansha's Afternoon magazine announced on Saturday that Asa Higuchi's Ookiku Furikabutte (Big Windup!) manga will resume from hiatus as planned in the next issue on July 25. The magazine announced in August that the manga would be on hiatus while Higuchi took maternity leave for her second baby.

Higuchi took a similar hiatus for 11 months between December 2010 and November 2011. Before that hiatus, the magazine's editors said that Higuchi was taking a break "for her health and to recharge," but it was later revealed after the manga resumed that her hiatus was due to the birth of her first baby.

The manga has been running in Monthly Afternoon since September of 2003, and the 27th volume shipped on last July 22. The story inspired two television anime seasons. Funimation released the first part of the anime in North America in 2009 and Nozomi Entertainment released the second season last year.